


Next stop, Paradise.

by Sometimesalwayssarcastic



Category: 13 Reasons Why (TV)
Genre: Brief references to past trauma, M/M, References to past suicide and rape, Summer Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 04:26:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11096883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sometimesalwayssarcastic/pseuds/Sometimesalwayssarcastic
Summary: Junior year and it's drama is finally over, leaving Tony and Clay to spend their well deserved summer break visiting Clay's grandparents in Florida.After all, what better way is there to heal than to get as far away from that shitty town and it's people as possible?





	Next stop, Paradise.

**Author's Note:**

> Should I be starting a new story? No. Have I been working on my other ones? Also no. However, this story has been growing at the back of my mind for a while now and these boys deserve a chance to get away and enjoy themselves. <3  
> Also, this is going off of the notion that their town is located in North California, as that's where it was filmed.

It’s been a hell of a year and Clay can’t help but thank god that it’s almost summer break. He just doesn’t think he’ll be able to maintain his sanity if he has to continue trekking through these shitty hallways for another day.

He’s antsy to leave – to have peace and freedom for a good three months before he is going to be forced back to this hellhole for another year. But, at the very least, that would prove to be his last. Then came college and an uncertain future, though he can’t help but think that anything would be better than the events that had transpired that year.

From Jeff to Hannah and her tapes to the law suit and Jessica’s accusation of rape against Bryce, there’s hardly been a dull moment. He just needs time to relax and get his mind off of everything, and that was just what he was going to do.

His pen taps a restless tune against the wood of the desk as blue hues stare critically at the clock ticking far too slowly on the adjacent wall. It’s only minutes until his last final is over and he finished half an hour ago.

Beside him he can hear two students whispering about their summer plans, only to be promptly silenced by the teacher. Everyone’s already done but the time allotted is two hours and she’d be damned before she lets students enjoy their time in her class.

He’s certainly not going to miss _her_ next year.

Another minute passes and Clay suddenly understands the stereotypical shout of joy that resounds from students at the sound of the bell because, when it finally rings, he swears he hasn’t felt this elated in months.

Within minutes the classroom is emptied, every student more than ready to flee the building in favor of basking in the sun and, this time, Clay’s no exception. He has places to be and things to do that didn’t involve earning a stink eye from a chemistry teacher that disagreed with the beat he was drumming with his pen.

The hallways are more crowded than ever, not to mention louder, and he finds himself trailing along the lockers to avoid the mass of bodies eagerly chatting. It’s been a week since they were instructed to empty their lockers, yet, as he turns a corner, he still finds Tony waiting by where his slot used to be. He’s adorned in his usual combination of leather and jeans, though this time he’s lacking his school bag, making everything all the more real.

_They’re really, truly free._

“Ready to head out?” Tony asks the moment Clay’s within hearing range and he merely offers his friend a small smile in response, “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Of course it’s a yes. We’re done, Tony!”

He can’t remember the last time he’s felt so excited and he savors the sensation. For a moment, he almost feels like that awkward boy crushing on the new girl in town. _Almost_.

“Yes we are.” Came the other boy’s easy response and just like that they were moving towards the front doors. With smooth accuracy on Tony’s part and a strange, uncoordinated stumble on Clay’s, both boys manage to escape the confines of the High School and make a beeline for the Mustang dutifully parked in the lot.

They’re officially Seniors now, Clay realizes as he slides into the passenger side of the vehicle, a pale hand coming to rub in awe at his face. That means Bryce and a handful of those other idiots will be nothing more than bad memories come next fall. How could he _not_ be happy about that?

“You know; it’s been a while since I’ve seen you smile this much.”

It’s Tony’s offhanded comment that motivates the taller boy to regard his friend again, a blank look in his eyes as he pauses to comprehend just what it was that he had said.

“Is it that obvious?” He inquires after slight hesitation, although the small tilt of his lips is undeniable. Who the hell cares if people could tell? “I mean, I guess I really am.”  
The tanner boy smiles at the admittance and, after checking to make sure it was clear, pulls out of his spot and exits the school for the last time that school year,

“Good. You all packed for tomorrow?”

“I’ve been packed for like a week now.” He chuckles, feeling a small blush of embarrassment warm his cheeks at the confession, “How about you?”

“I haven’t been packed for a week...” Clay can tell from the way his sentence is phrased that it is meant to be a jeer towards the taller boy’s premature packing, and he rolls his eyes, “But, I am all packed. Even made a few tapes for the flight.”

“Awesome.”

Ever since Clay’s unfortunate introduction to bullying in middle school he had begun spending the majority of his summers at his grandparent’s house in Florida. There he could be himself and escape the stress that came with being the permanent odd one out in a small town. It was a vacation that he looked forward to every year without fail and, now that his best friend was tagging along for the adventure, he was even more stoked.

Florida was all the way across the country and far away from the familiar buildings that, if he was not careful, he could still spot traces of long curly hair and impish grins.

As Hannah herself once said, summer was the great reset button. Together they could see to healing and, hopefully, return before school a little less broken than they left. Less broken, because he certainly was not disillusioned enough to believe that a few months away could repair the damage that their mutual friend’s death left on their minds, and, in Tony’s case mend the fractures that coincided with a broken heart, curtsy of Brad.

It had been about a month since Tony had admitted to him that they had spilt up, if Clay remembers correctly, and he can tell that his friend still wasn’t fully over him, regardless of how adamantly he claimed otherwise.

After all, why else did he sometimes detect the slightest hint of pain glistening in brown eyes? Or explain why Tony sometimes appeared to be empty – on the verge of uttering words that would never escape the confines of his lips? He needed this just as much as Clay himself did.

“How are you still so damn pale with grandparents that live in Florida?” Tony suddenly asks and Clay finds himself gazing absently at his friend again before snickering and shaking his head in feigned offense.

“Same way I stay pale here in California. I enjoy nature through _books_.”

“You should spend more time in the outdoors, Clay. There’s nothing quite like it.”  
“And do what? Climb cliffs? Because that worked out so _well_ last time.”

This time it’s the shorter boy’s turn to scoff, though he knows the paler boy has a point. Clay was about as coordinated as a dead cat, so maybe his preference for the indoors was a positive thing.

“There’s a bunch of stuff we can do instead. We can hike or go to the beach, we don’t have to climb anything.”

“Right…”

“What do you usually do when you go down there?”

“Well…” That’s actually a pretty good question and he has to ponder it for a minute, gaze unconsciously shifting to stare out at the windshield. What _did_ he do? “I guess I read and help my grandma around the house… I also go to the movies every once in a while…”

“Wow. Seriously? That’s all you do?”

The taller boy shrugs, heat rising from his cheeks to the tip of his ears. Alright, so maybe he wasn’t the most _adventurous_ or _entertaining_ individual, but he enjoyed what he did… As much as he could when he didn’t have any friends to spend time with while he was down there…

… Tony _may_ have a point…

“Well, what do you spend your summers doing?” He finds himself refuting, wanting to avoid the shift of attention fully to him, “Mr. I have so much more fun than you?”

“Work on cars, mostly. More people are on the road during the summer, which leads to more problems with their cars and more work for us.”

This would be the first summer since he was old enough to hold a wrench that he didn’t dedicate solely to mechanical work, and it was a bittersweet feeling. He hated leaving his father without his assistance, despite the fact that his brothers promised to help more in Tony’s absence, but he knew this was for the best. Despite how calm and collected the tanner boy made himself seem, everything that had happened still weighed heavily on his mind and he needed a vacation of sorts. Especially now that he was single due to circumstances that were less than favorable.

He could only imagine what Brad would think if he ever heard of the trip he and Clay were taking, but he knew it was irrelevant. Brad was a ghost of the past, nothing more and nothing less.

“My grandpa kinda likes cars too, you know…” Clay offers after a few moments of silence in which Tony figures he was pondering how to respond, “He has a pretty old car that he likes to work on… I mean, it’s nothing like this, but it’s pretty cool…”

His attention is peaked at that piece of information and Tony raises an eyebrow, his attention flickering from the road to his friend as he turned into his neighborhood,

“What kind of car?”

“Uh… Well, I actually don’t know all that much cars… Or really anything, but it’s yellow and… It’s called a Hudson Hornet, I think?”

Clay’s voice lowers a bit as he tentatively voices the name, wary of making a fool of himself by offering an irrational answer. However, it only takes a swift glance at Tony to know he’s at least relatively correct, as an impressed grin took over tan features.

“Rad.” He nods, pulling his car into the taller boy’s driveway before putting it into park, “Your grandfather has a good taste in cars.”  
“Thanks…” Clay coughs, his hands coming to up fiddle listlessly with the strap to his book bag, “Anyway, I’m pretty sure my mom will be coming to get you at around noon tomorrow., even though our flight isn’t until like 2.  Something about making sure that we get there in time and all…”

He ends his sentence with a shrug. Hell if he could understand his mother and her logic.

“Alright, cool...” Brown eyes shift to the dashboard of the car at the mention of their flight and Clay can tell that Tony is thinking the same thing he is – it really is a shame that they can’t make a road trip out of the ordeal. He’s certain Tony would love nothing more than to be able to drive her around the state of Florida, however it’s too unrealistic. The trip itself is long by plane and the vehicle, while stylish, broke down far too often to travel too far. He figures they can make it to the edge of Nevada at the farthest before the car’s done for – it’s too old and ill equipped for anything that wasn’t leisurely trips around town.

So, instead of catching a lift from his friend like usual, they’d both be dropped off at the airport by Clay’s mother – that way Tony won’t have to leave his car in the parking garage for two months.

“Florida’s pretty hot you know,” Clay suddenly finds himself saying once he’s out of the car and shutting the door behind him, gaze fixated through the open window as he grinned, “you might want to pick up a new fashion style.”

A pale hand gestures teasingly towards the leather jacket seemingly stuck to the shorter boy’s body and Tony can merely laugh in response, his eyes rolling.

Clay wasn’t exactly one to talk in that respect.

“What, and wear hoodies instead?”

Mirth is practically dancing around brown hues and Clay can’t help the small smile crawling across his lips as he snickers and begins walking up the path leading to his house. Tony had a point there – he constantly found himself adorning layers of clothing even during the hot summer days and that certainly didn’t change in Florida either.

“Right, message received. See you tomorrow, Tony.”

“See you tomorrow, Clay.”

_It's finally time to heal._


End file.
